Breastfeeding is a great thing and I think most women want to nurse their babies if they can. When I expected my first child I wanted to breastfeed my newborn partly because I thought of it as a way to lose weight (can you actually say that or is it considered too shallow?!). I had heard all these stories about how the fat more or less melted away from the new mommies when they nursed their babies. So I imagined that it would work like that for me as well (this was probably one reason to why I didn't worry about all the extra weight I put on during my pregnancy). The truth was that I think it was even harder to lose weight when nursing, since the body sometimes wants to hold on to the extra fat in order to produce the milk. In many cases there is an actual conflict between trying to lose weight and wanting to be able to breastfeed your baby. I don't think you should go on a hardcore diet if your aim is to breastfeed your baby, since that may affect your milk production negatively. My advice is to eat healthy food and all the food that your body needs to produce the milk. But it's also important to be aware of what your dietary need really is. If you over-eat (which is easy since breastfeeding makes you hungry) you will not lose weight - some women even gain weight. I experienced that the need for sweet unhealthy foods was more urgent than normally when I breastfed my babies so my struggle was to resist that craving and eat real food when I was hungry instead of all the yummy stuff. And I was also aware of my calorie intake so that I didn't over-eat. Also, I think it's pretty common to long for sugary stuff when you lack sleep, so that is another factor to be aware of. My e-book, Post-Pregnancy Belly Guide, which is a guide on how to rehabilitate and strengthen your post-pregnancy belly in order to get a flat and strong stomach, also provides some weight loss tips related to both pregnancy and breastfeeding - although it is not a weight loss guide.
Avocado on wholegrain bred is a great healthy extra meal when you are breastfeeding and need extra calories to manage milk production. It's also what I had for lunch today : )
//Nicole Hellgren
